Cosmos sign Senna to contract extension

Marcos Senna enjoyed a dream first season with the New York Cosmos, and he has no intentions to leave the club in the near future.

The Cosmos announced on Thursday that Senna has signed a contract extension that runs through July 2015. Senna won the Cosmos’ Team MVP award last year and helped the club claim the Soccer Bowl by scoring in the 1-0 victory over the Atlanta Silverbacks.

“I’ve had an incredible experience in New York so far,” the 37-year-old Senna said in a statement. “Right now, my body feels great and I want to keep playing for as long as possible. This has been a fantastic move for my family and me and we’re looking forward to another great year.”

Aside from helping the Cosmos win the championship match in their first season back, the former Spanish international contributed six goals in 13 matches. Senna was also named to the 2013 NASL Best XI team.

“Marcos was a tremendous presence for us last year,” Cosmos head coach Giovanni Savarese said. “His leadership helped the team come together and physically his skills are still at a very high level. We’re delighted to have Marcos with us through the 2015 Spring Season and following that, both sides will sit down and discuss the feasibility of a further extension.”

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What do you make of the Cosmos extending Senna’s stay? Expect him to continue to play at a high level?

Here is the thing I dont get about the Cosmos, what is the end game? They cannot become a world power or world brand playing in the NASL against lower division opposition. Their size and importance is limited by the league they are in and based on the markets it has NASL will not be overtaking MLS.

If they dont want to join MLS and MLS doesnt want them the Cosmos are destined to be a small fish in an even smaller pond as MLS grows and takes the best of the NASL markets with them.

Well MLS is stopping at 24 teams so the annexing of NASL clubs won’t last beyond that. I think the NASL has a good business plan. One that the Cosmos prefer over MLS. The Cosmos want to control their own brand and be their own club. They don’t want to be a part of single entity.

The end game is winning the Open Cup and getting into the CCL. Give NASL 10 years and I think it will be a more enjoyable league than the MLS (unless MLS decides to drop the horrible single entity and salary cap/dp stuff)

I’m pretty sure MLS is not stopping at 24. From the reports, the league is merely pausing at 24. I’d be surprised if the league doesn’t end up topping off at around 28-32 teams. That’s going to limit the NASL’s options down the road.

Cosmos needs to generate revenue and that will be very hard to do in the NASL. They are limited on how much they can charge at the gate due to weak opponents and they won’t be making much if anything on a television deal. Emirates is a good shirt sponsor but I’m sure the sponsor got a really good deal on that one. I would like to see the team’s financials because I have to assume they are hemorrhaging money at a rate that will not last 10 years.